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Would be interesting to see what the Towers prices were last year to see what the increase was. Another thing I didn't realize, they have 1 less paid maze this year, and 1 more free scare zone, which could potentially be why they've made the mazes more expensive. Last year they had 4 paid mazes and 1 scare zone This year 3 paid mazes and 2 free scare zones Still doesn't justify charging £14 - £16 for a maze run through though...

Just had a quick check on queue times. 2014 is the earliest year its recorded. Rumba was open till 10pm Fright Nights, Loggers closed at dusk. Thought I had memories of loggers in the dark but maybe I'm imagining things there. 2015 was the first year Rumba started closing at dusk by the looks of things.

Those prices are outrageous. But then I suppose prices for everything are outrageous now, so 🤷‍♂️

Merlin entertainments credit rating has been downgraded by S&P due to its growing debts and cash outflow with declining revenues. "Persistent high cash burn could lead to insufficient liquidity after 12 months, without further cash injection" All in all thats a pretty poor outlook and it does make me wonder what it means for future investments at the parks.

Yes the costs are horrific. £14-16 for one go in a maze is gobsmacking. And certainly, neither Compound or Mine Tours are worth anywhere near that price. All that does for me is make Thorpe's maze seem good value in comparison (though, I stress, I believe £10 is also too much). But then again, I guess people pay those prices. The whole cost vs demand thing probably plays a part in their logic, so there we go. Personally, I still feel £5-8 is what these mazes are 'worth', in the sense that of that's the quality they provide in comparison to what's out there (both in terms of other theme parks, and scream parks). But maybe that's just unrealistic of me. I wonder if the increase in prices is directly linked to using RWS and needing to generate more money so all parties get money. Again, thinking in terms of Fright Nights, we might need to brace ourselves...

Were either of them actually ever open until 10pm? Maybe Rumba, but I always seem to remember Loggers closing when it hit dusk / night, and Rumba certainly closed at dusk in the early 2010s.

Rumba was open till around mid September last year so hours are certainly getting less and less for it. Don't forget there was also a period of it opening at 1pm this year too. Seems hardly worth all the effort getting it open and staff trained if they can no longer keep it operational during the summer holidays. Who remembers the days of Rumba and Loggers till 10pm in October? 😢 I do also understand it from a cost cutting perspective though. If they're being asked to cut costs, would much rather they do this than make staggered openings elsewhere or cut park hours completely. Its reliability has noticeably been a lot worse the last couple of seasons. Its been years of it not reaching full height too. Its a very old ride, wasn't it 2nd hand from Drayton? No clue how long it operated there. Zodiac has never been one of my favorites so I wouldn't miss it, but it would be a shame to see it go and not have anything replace it (which would be the most likely option unfortunately)

Audio has never been the same since they got rid of all the Bose speakers in my opinion. I miss the loud audio at the bottom of the lift too, much quieter now.

Will be interesting to see reviews from Scarefest this year and if theres any difference in quality. Its a good lineup this year, new maze and a new scarezone which is exactly what they needed in my opinion. I wonder if RWS have any input in design or its purely just from an operational perspective (employing actors.) If I was to guess, RWS are purely operational. One thing I've noticed though is the prices for the mazes at Towers. Thorpe this year 4 mazes £34 or £28 with AP discount 1 shots £8 or £7 with AP discount Towers this year 3 mazes £38 or £30.40 with AP discount Edge of the forest 1 shot (new maze) £16 or £12.80 with AP discount Compound or Mine Tours 1 shot £14 or £11.20 with AP discount £16 and £14 for a 1 shot through a maze is absolutely absurd, especially considering cost of entry etc..

Since this post theres been a couple of changes; - 6pm closes from 9th Aug - 31st Aug 4 - Mondays + Thursdays throughout September and October have been cut from 5pm to 4pm Don't think Chessie has ever had 4pm closes so thats a shame. Still no sign of any hours past 5pm in October, usually 7pm in the holidays + weekends.

*blows cobwebs off* I don't know if it's been explicitly discussed on the forums, but Towers' Entertainment function is now in the hands of an external team, outsourced in a similar way to how food is now outsourced to Aramark. The team responsible for that is RWS: https://www.rwsglobal.com/ I don't know exactly how it now works, and how responsible RWS are for the design of new attractions. However, the 2 new scare attractions for this year are a scare zone and scare maze, both themed and located in the Dark Forest: https://www.facebook.com/reel/24142435788755074/?s=single_unit It's worth noting that Thorpe's Entertainment function is going to be in the hands of RWS from 2026. So how Scarefest goes down this year might give an indication to how Fright Nights will go next year (which will be marketed heavily due to it being the 25th year)

Ehhh, I don't think there's any malice being towards Dean directly. Certainly looking at his socials it's all positive, with the odd "Your record will be beaten" comment, to which he's not bothered by it When he first came up with the idea of riding every coaster in the UK, he was somewhat unaware of just how many tacky kiddie creds there are about, as well as parks which don't let solo adults in. So he just changed the challenge. The guy is having fun and has got some good social media interactions out of it. All good. The world record side of it is factually incorrect though, because there's a World Record for the most number of coasters ridden in a 24 hour period, which is 74: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/8/national-roller-coaster-day-10-theme-park-ride-records-for-thrill-seekers-486590#:~:text=Most roller coasters ridden in,helicopters to travel between them. Last I checked, 74 is bigger than 55. I guess you could argue it's a different record, and uses parameters which are different (so you could define the records differently, but heyho). As for the reaction of others, I think it's only natural for people to respond with a "Hang on, I can / have beat that". I know for a fact that I've ridden more than 55 different coasters in one week. I'm sure that's the case with loads of new records too; people will see a new record created, realise they can best it, so do it. Obviously there's some people out there that are acting sour grapes, but heyho, that's always the case.

More than a week wasn't it? Less than 55 if you don't count Alpine coasters. And he didn't ride all of them either. Just feels like a very typical influencer "challenge" that they get some attention for and more importantly boost their own income. Expect Sanbrooke to better this within a year. Especially as he can drag his child into the Gullivers parks.

So this has triggered me. There’s a guy on Instagram making really positive theme park content about riding all the rollercoasters in the Uk. As a result he’s been getting a lot of press and was even on the radio yesterday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gzwd1mw17o.amp he was given a world record who I assume heart radio set up with GWR as a good press piece for riding 55 rollercoasters in one week. Now that may not be the actual WR however it’s the first to be validated and Tbf any enthusiast could probably do this…. I assume though the cost might be quite high . However despite all his positive content all I’ve seen is a load of jealousy from enthusiasts trying to bring him down and tell GWR off. why is this the case why can’t enthusiasts just support eachother and fundamentally be kind?

We did run it with 5 trains a few times back in 2014. Our rides manager at the time was really pushing for it, but the ride kept going down daily with various issues. Because of that, he decided to scale it back to 4 trains permanently, or 3 on off-peak days. After that, it never operated with 5 trains again during the time I worked there.

I’ve never been able to decipher what jigsaw is saying when in the 2nd car. There are always screams and the sound of the air cannon below that just make it impossible to hear in my opinion.

Audio is quite the issue for the indoor section of the ride right now. The on-ride talk from Jigsaw (if in car 2) is so quiet I could barely hear it despite being next to the puppet. There was no arrow noise during the air cannons on my ride yesterday. The scream from the Jigsaw body is definitely quieter too. Little things in grand scheme of it all, but certainly adds up.

You’re absolutely right 👌 it really feels like they went for a short-term hype ride instead of thinking long-term. Like you said, if they had created their own unique concept with better use of lights, sound, and immersive effects, it could’ve stayed exciting for years. The way it is now, the novelty might fade pretty quickly and in a couple of years it’ll already feel outdated.

Could hit 1k pph if it had 5 trains on. Which I've no idea when last happened.

The one thing that I'll admit baffles me about modern day Tomb Blaster, aside from everything @JoshC. mentioned, is the throughput. As a ride with multiple large trains and simple lap bar restraints, it seems like the sort of thing that should be doing well over 1,000pph on paper... yet in reality, it's capped at 500pph or so. Why is this? It did seem incredibly short-staffed when I last went to Chessington in 2023, with one poor man running the entire operation on his own, but I saw a post online somewhere stating that the target throughput was only 500pph even a few years back. For a ride with large trains and a simple restraint system, this seems bafflingly low! I do think it's a ride that has maybe had its day a bit and could do with a Curse-style revamp, though. It was fun last time I did it, but seems a bit dated nowadays.

To be honest, there won't be any real differences in how busy it is. Weather might play a factor, but the Saturdays in September will all be equally busy really. Saturdays will be the busiest day of the week, but it still won't be that busy.

Apologies for bumping this thread, but out of curiosity, which Saturday in September is likely to be quietest out of the 13th, the 20th and the 27th? I was pondering a nice September trip to Thorpe, and had provisionally pencilled in the 27th in my mind. I thought that the further from summer and the school holidays I get, the quieter the days at Thorpe are likely to be. However, I’m wondering if that would be the best of the 3, as you are starting to get towards Fright Nights type season by the 27th. FN seemingly doesn’t start until 3rd October, but I wondered if crowds crept back up again towards the end of September in anticipation. What do any Thorpe regulars think?

Just replace Rumba with a water ride the little grots can be pinned down into so they can't get out. As always, the UK should get a Chiapas-esque ride.

Couple of potential theories: -It was found that whoever went into the ride area damaged the ride area fencing. This wouldn't have been immediately obvious, but after dealing with the people in the ride and then surveying the fencing, this would be discovered. That could take 30 minutes. I'd say that's most likely. -Further issues with people trying to enter the park / entering the ride area, which were causing further delays. -An unrelated technical issue occurred after the guest action, meaning the ride wouldn't be able to reopen.

1st September is still technically Summer Holidays, so that's a hit. It's closure is happening earlier and earlier. It's a shame. I can understand it from a cost-cutting perspective, as it is probably the best way to save money and have minimal impact on the guest experience. But closing rides is still a sad thing to do. Frankly it would be good for them to replace it with a different water ride which actually gets a decent ridership. Ideally something where the wetness riders experience can be tweaked based on time of year, so that it can be open over Fright Nights and provide relief on the busiest days of the year. I'm quite worried about Zodiac. It spent a good chunk of last season closed, and has been closed for a while now. I believe a couple of pods are currently off the structure. I do wonder whether the park are weighing their options with it. Samurai is a weird one. The app has listed it as a "delayed opening" for a couple of weeks, despite clearing having no intention to open. Hopefully just one of its usual hiccups, and not anything more serious.